There
hasn't been a lot
to cheer about with the Saltillo Saraperos lately.It wasn't that long ago that they were one of
the Mexican League's flagship franchises, winning four LMB North titles
between
2004 and 2010, copping the pennant in 2009 and 2010.The Sarape Makers were boffo at the box
office as well in that timeframe, averaging over 10,000 fans per game
in 2005
and 2006 and annually ranking among the Liga's attendance leaders.

Times
changed in 2013,
however, when owners Grupo Ley sold the Saraperos to Alejandro Garza
Diaz (who,
in turn, sold the franchise to Antonio Nerio Rodriguez two years later).Although Saltillo has remained among the
LMB's attendance leaders throughout, the team has gradually declined
from their
2013 North Division regular season title, finishing seventh in 2016 and
2017.The franchise has had financial
problems and is reportedly one of many in the Liga on the verge of
financial
insolvency.In short, the picture in
Saltillo is anything but pretty.

Thank
goodness for Rainel
Rosario.

A
journeyman outfielder
whose stints in the Cardinals and Red Sox organizations bookended a
two-year
stay in Japan with the Hiroshima Carp, Rosario's first year in Mexico
was a
resounding success.The 28-year-old
Dominican
led the Saraperos with a .336 batting average in 2017 while topping the
LMB
with 26 home runs and finishing second to Yucatan's Ricky Alvarez with
104
RBIs.Rosario was especially devastating
at home, battering opposing pitchers for a .398 average and 20 homers
in 54
games at Estadio Francisco I. Madero.He
enjoyed a torrid July by recording a .455 average with 5 roundtrippers
and 27
ribbies in 99 at-bats over 26 games.Rosario was a sure bet when batting with runners in scoring
position,
going 59-for-119 (.420) with 7 homers and an amazing 76 RBIs in such
situations.Right-handed pitchers
suffered the brunt of inflicted damage by being knocked around by the
right-handed hitter for 19 homers and 80 RBI in 306 at-bats.

Like last
summer's BBM
Batter of the Year, Diory Hernandez of Aguascalientes, nobody could’ve
anticipated those kinds of numbers from Rosario in Saltillo.After signing with St. Louis as a 17-year-old
free agent in April 2006, the 6'1" 190-pounder spent seven summers in
the
Cardinals system and never hitting more than nine homers or driving in
one
season.His first four years were spent
playing Rookie league ball and he eventually rose as high as AA
Springfield in
the Texas League (where he hit .214 over 22 games in 2012), but Rosario
never
reached the potential the Cards saw when he was signed.

After
sitting out the
2013 season entirely, Rosario made his way to the Far East with
Hiroshima of
the Central League, Japanese baseball's senior circuit, for 2014.After a standout rookie season with the Carp
that year, hitting .336 with 14 homers and 49 RBIs in 69 games, his
sophomore
year wasn't as successful as his numbers plummeted to .258/2/12 in 42
contests
for 2015.Still, he did well enough to
return to MiLB in 2016 after signing with Boston in June.After going 0-for-7 in two games with AAA
Pawtucket, Rosario was sent to AA Portland and hit .254 with a pair of
homers
in 101 games over the remainder of the season.After the Sox allowed his contract to expire in November,
Rosario signed
on with Saltillo one day before the Saraperos' 2017 season opener at
Monterrey.

Will
Rainel Rosario be
able to repeat this year's breakthrough numbers in 2018?History would indicate otherwise.After
all, Diory Hernandez went from being
the offensive linchpin in Aguascalientes in 2016 to being released by
the
Rieleros on May 14 and again by Union Laguna six weeks later even
though he hit
.300 for both teams, so who knows?In
the end, in a 2017 season that saw a bit of resurgence for Mexican
League
batters after pitchers had enjoyed recent unaccustomed success in a
loop known
for decades as a hitter's league, Rosario's campaign in Saltillo gets
BBM's nod
as being the best among a number of qualified candidates for our Batter
of the
Year award.Let's just hope his
follow-up year goes better than Diory Hernandez' did.